jQuery editTable is a very small jQuery Plugin (~1Kb gzipped) that fill the gap left by the missing of a default input field for data tables. jQuery editTable can be used both in ajax and/or HTTP POST contest and let you preset the title and number of columns or just let complete freedom to the user. You can even append custom behaviors to single column cells (ex. jQuery UI Datepicker). The only limit is your imagination! :)

To use it you just have to include jQuery and a copy of the plugin in your head or footer:

<script type="text/javascript" src="http://code.jquery.com/jquery-latest.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="jquery.edittable.min.js"></script>
<link rel="stylesheet" href="jquery.edittable.min.css">

Now you can trigger editTable on any textarea or block element (ex. div, article, section ...). In case you trigger it on a textarea, its content will be used as JSON source for the table. If the textarea is inside a form, on submit, its content will be updated with the new JSON data. Otherwise, if you trigger it on a block element the table will be appended to the element itself (ajax).

var mytable = $('#edittable').editTable({
    data: [['']],       // Fill the table with a js array (this is overridden by the textarea content if not empty)
    jsonData: false,    // Fill the table with json data (this will override data property)
    headerCols: false,  // Fix columns number and names (array of column names)
    maxRows: 999        // Max number of rows which can be added
});

There are of course many methods which can be used on the created table. Let's see...

mytable.loadData(dataArray);    // Fill the table with js data
mytable.loadJsonData(jsonData); // Fill the table with JSON data
mytable.getData();              // Get a js array of the table data
mytable.getJsonData();          // Get JSON from the table data
mytable.reset();                // Reset the table to the initial set of data

That's it, now give a look to the examples to understand how it works.

ReStable has been made by me. You can contact me at [email protected] or twitter for any issue or feauture request.